I Am The Absolute

6. You must meditate on the ‘I am’ without holding on to the body-mind, the ‘I am’ is the first ignorance, persist on it and you will go beyond it.

Bring all your attention to the ‘I am’, meditate on it; try to do it by keeping the body-mind totally aside. In the beginning the body-mind would resist this reversion but with practice they would automatically not interfere. Remember, this ‘I am’ has tricked you into believing the unreal so you may call it the first ignorance. You have to be after this ‘I am’ constantly only then you can go beyond it, otherwise it will continue playing games with you.

7. The feeling ‘I am’ comes to you only because there is something older or earlier in you to which this ‘I am’ appears.

Ponder over a question like: To whom does the feeling ‘I am’ come? Or, what was I prior to the arrival of the knowledge ‘I am’? When you do so, you will realize that there has to be something older or something before on which this ‘I am’ appears. The more the time you spend in the ‘I am’ without words, the stronger the conviction would grow about this ‘something’ that is prior to the ‘I am’. Finally that ‘something’ is your goal and to be focused upon, for that is your true Absolute nature.

8. The interval between the beginning of ‘I am’ (birth or waking) and until you lose it again (death or deep sleep) is called ‘time’.

This whole concept of time is based on the appearance and disappearance of the ‘I am’. The arrival and departure of the ‘I am’ from birth to death is called a life-time, while that from waking up to falling asleep a day-time. Accordingly you say ‘his life-time has come to an end’ or ‘It is the end of the day’. The ‘I am’ linked up with memory maintains a continuity throughout your life.

9. Thoroughly investigate the appearance and disappearance of the ‘I am’ – did you desire it, or did it just happen?

Understanding, meditation and conviction grow together, therein one of the important question that is asked, is about the appearance and disappearance of the ‘I am’. The question is that did it occur through your wanting or desiring? Was it a volitional process? If you have correctly understood the ‘I am’ the answer would be that it came and would go spontaneously, on its own. This would strike a blow to the belief you hold that you are ‘doer’ and may even end it.

I AM THE ABSOLUTE

The end of a wanderer, based on the teachings of

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

3. Consistently and with perseverance separate the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or that’, just keep in mind the feeling ‘I am’.

All this is not as easy as it sounds it is hard work, your consistency and perseverance are keys to you success. Separate the ‘I am’ from ‘I am this’ or’ I am that’ or ‘I am so and so’ all these are add-ons and have been loaded onto you by others and society. All these appendages on the ‘I am’ maybe of some value in your day to day living, but if your goal or quest is for eternity, they are impediments. You will have to separate them from the ‘I am’ and just keep in mind your sense of ‘presence’ or the feeling ‘I am’.

4. Only the ‘I am’ is certain, it’s impersonal, all knowledge stems from it, it’s the root, hold on to it and let all else go.

Right from the day you came know that ‘you are’ to this day you still know that ‘you are’. All add-ons have come and gone, are transient, but the fundamental ‘I am’ has remained unchanged and is the only certainty. This ‘I am’ is impersonal, it’s common to everybody and wordless, the moment you came know that ‘you are’ you did not know any words or language, which came later. Based on this non-verbal ‘I am’ you could later on say verbally ‘I am’ in whatever language you were taught. From this small minute ‘I am’ further knowledge grew leaps and bounds to gigantic proportions. So all knowledge stems from the ‘I am’, it is very fundamental, the base, the origin, the root of everything. You have to hold on to this ‘I am’ and let everything else go.

5. The ‘I am’ is the sum total of all that you perceive, it’s time-bound, the ‘I am’ itself is an illusion, you are not the ‘I am’ you are prior to it.

Since the ‘I am’ is the continuous link throughout all the events in your life it quite obviously forms the sum total of all your perception. It is the very basis of your perception, no ‘I am’, no perception. This ‘I am’ is an illusion, for like a dream it has spontaneously appeared on you and one day it would disappear. All that appears and disappears cannot be true and since you are a witness to it you stand apart. You are not the ‘I am’ but prior to it.

I AM THE ABSOLUTE

The Teaching

Understanding the ‘I am’, your sense of ‘being’ or just ‘presence’ is extremely important as on it rests the entire outcome of the teaching.

Firstly, are you at all aware of your ‘being’ or of the fact that ‘you are’?

You have ‘to be’ before anything else can ‘ be’, your sense of ‘presence’ or the feeling ‘I am’ is very fundamental to anything that has to follow. Secondly, this sense of ‘being’ or the feeling ‘I am’, was it not the very first event or happening before any of your living experiences could begin? Apply your mind go back in time to the moment when it dawned on you that ‘you are’ or ‘I am’. This ‘I am’ is still there with you, ever present, ever available, it was and still is the first thought, refuse all other thoughts and come back there and stay there. So try to understand and grasp this ‘beingness’ or ‘I amness’ that is inherent in you. The more precisely and clearly you do it the more rapid would be your progress.

2. Just stay put firmly and establish yourself in the ‘I am’, reject all that does not go with ‘I am’.

Having understood the ‘I am’ in every way, the next thing is to stay there, establish yourself in your sense of ‘being’ and not deviate from it at all. The very moment you start thinking about anything else you can be lest assured there have been ‘add-ons’ on the basic ‘I am’ and it has lost its purity. Reject anything that is ‘I am plus …’and so forth because all the rest are contaminants and do not go with it.

BEYOND MEDICINE: FROM NOTHINGNESS TO NOTHINGNESS

BEYOND MEDICINE: FROM NOTHINGNESS TO NOTHINGNESS
A Video of the slides in my talk titled ‘From Nothingness to Nothingness’ given in Indore. It was in one of the series of talks called BEYOND MEDICINE organized by Dr. Prakash Chhajlani at the Choithram Hospital.

The body and world don’t exist

Master: Since you firmly believe that ‘I am the body’, I point towards your body and ask you, whose body is this?

Disciple: It’s my body.

M: You have certain ideas about everything, all ideas are thoughts and all these we collectively call the mind, whose mind is this?

D: It’s my mind.

M: You agree then that this body that I pointed out to and the mind I spoke of belong to you?

D: Yes.

M: That means they are your possessions, they belong to you and you are their possessor?

D: Yes.

M: If you are their possessor then can you be the possessions?

D: No.

M: Then you are neither the body nor the mind but their owner or possessor.

D: Yes.

M: Do you know the owner or the possessor?

D: No

M: Which means you do not know who you are?

D: No

M: Thus if you have no clear knowledge of who you are, all the learning, greatness and power you believe you have are false! Hence the first lesson you have to learn is about your own self, you must know who you are, isn’t it?

D: Yes, indeed.

M: So your primary task is to launch an enquiry into yourself and know who you are by asking the question: Who am I?

D: Yes

M: Apart from the reasoning that we began with, is there any way, method or test by which we can determine a particular thing to be ‘not I’ or ‘not me’?

D; Please tell me, I don’t know.

M: Would it not be to ask as to whether you exist or not in the absence of that particular thing?